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Exell observes that science itself demonstrates this principle: the passions of grief, disappointment, anger, jealousy, and revenge derange the bodily system in proportion to their strength, while pleasurable emotions rooted in moral virtue give buoyancy and vigor to the body.
The present is intimately related to the future, and the future will faithfully reflect the character.
Iniquity expresses unevenness or inequality—a want of rectitude or moral principle.
Love is not something we indulge when we feel generous toward the worthy and attractive.
Exell (1887) identifies flattery's essential character: it assumes all forms and colors, a universal countenance indifferent to truth.
The vast region of human sorrow appears to most a dark and dreary desert.
The picture is midnight—the master absent, servants waiting with loins girded, lamps burning, eyes fixed upon the entrance.
Gaze not on beauty overmuch, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee.
Thomas Carlyle observed with prescience: "There is a great necessity indeed of getting a little more silent than we are.
One Victorian writer imagined hours passing like solemn virgins in silent procession, their faces veiled, carrying caskets filled with treasures: brilliant diadems, ripe fruits, faded flowers.
The *peripateo* (walking) denotes chosen motion—not forced proximity, but intentional association.
These men had condemned an innocent man to death—yet their conscience remained untroubled.
Love proves far more effective than logic in attaining the best ends.
Everything depends upon the prevailing sentiment of the hour.
Propriety demands three conditions: first, that things be done in their proper time; second, that they be kept to their proper use; third, that they be put in their proper place.
The wisdom of religion is vindicated in the contrasting ends of good and evil men.
The flattery here is not gentle commendation but *kelalah* (curse)—a loud, vaunting display that intrudes itself on all occasions with busy, demonstrative energy.
The ruined city in Solomon's metaphor depicts precisely this condition.
Consider two grave consequences: First, pride subjects a man to the imputation of folly.
But the New Testament animates itself by love's voice: 'Though I have all boldness in Christ to enjoin thee ...
Yet Christians must judge timidity differently than the world does.
Exell notes the critical distinction: it is not the place itself, but the way to it.
Of all species of deception, self-deception proves most detrimental; it is like having a traitor within the fortress who betrays his country to the enemy.
The Apostle never visited Rome, possessed no established relationships with those believers, had never looked upon their faces—yet his heart went out toward them with undisguised yearning.